Psychological and Physical torture
July 25th 2008 14:16
I'll admit. I torture my characters. Mostly psychologically, although I have been known to delve into the realms of extreme physical pain every once in a while. About, oh, once a year-Nanowrimo is always an ideal time to test out every method in the book, if only because it's tried and true for word count purposes.
The torture method that I am most fond of, though, involves solitary confinement. Or, almost solitary confinement-and the only visitors are violent and take it out on you. Something that leads to utter, and total despair.
Putting a character through such things, done right, can develop a character greatly, because of the character's reactions, the history it will add to them, and the mental scarring which you can detail later.
I think that mental scars-and sometimes physical ones-are excellent tools in writing when used properly. Excellent tools of characterization. It can be overdone, or done in such a way that it is so cliched and hackneyed that all it really does is get boring. But it can also be done really, really well.
The best writers know how to write this sort of thing, in my opinion. Of course, I'm a lover of Dark Fantasy. One of the best works I've ever read wasn't actually 'fantasy' exactly. It involved a woman going back into another life via hypnotic regression.
The scars she had from being Matilda-Lady of the Hay-in Wales way back when, and from what happened to Matilda, and her as the story unfolded, were well done. She could feel the physical pain. She even had a baby and post-hypnotic lactate. She became obsessed, and eventually so deeply entranced by Matilda that she would find herself randomly slipping into Matilda's life.
Reading that was fascinating, and it's a very heavy, but very good book. Stephen King does torture well. My favourite example would be in Gerald's Game (although I do like IT more, if only because it's full of insanity...), of the mental anguish she goes through. Other writers that do this well (listing books):
Sidney Sheldon-Tell Me Your Dreams is my prime example, but they're all good.
Lord Of The Rings-Tolkien-you can't tell me Frodo doesn't suffer torture of a sort.
Garth Nix-Lirael has lived through mental torture of a sort-although not directly implemented-until the book starts.
There are others, but my brain is too busy thinking up new ideas to think of them at the moment, and those are my favourite, shining examples from my shelves. For movies, see:
Tim Burton-Sweeney Todd, Edward Scissorhands.
M. Night Shymalan-Sixth Sense, The Village, all about psychological, and The Happening-which I saw and loved, in theater-is again, psychological.
Star Wars-Hi Han Solo, how was the carbonite?
Batman Begins-Scarecrow. Come on.
These are examples of great writing as well as wonderful torture, most of it psychological, and good to study. My own books are planned to include many scenes of death and other trauma, to either force the characters irrevocably insane, or very difficult to fix insane.
Do you like torture? If so, what do you find most effective?
The torture method that I am most fond of, though, involves solitary confinement. Or, almost solitary confinement-and the only visitors are violent and take it out on you. Something that leads to utter, and total despair.
Putting a character through such things, done right, can develop a character greatly, because of the character's reactions, the history it will add to them, and the mental scarring which you can detail later.
I think that mental scars-and sometimes physical ones-are excellent tools in writing when used properly. Excellent tools of characterization. It can be overdone, or done in such a way that it is so cliched and hackneyed that all it really does is get boring. But it can also be done really, really well.
The best writers know how to write this sort of thing, in my opinion. Of course, I'm a lover of Dark Fantasy. One of the best works I've ever read wasn't actually 'fantasy' exactly. It involved a woman going back into another life via hypnotic regression.
The scars she had from being Matilda-Lady of the Hay-in Wales way back when, and from what happened to Matilda, and her as the story unfolded, were well done. She could feel the physical pain. She even had a baby and post-hypnotic lactate. She became obsessed, and eventually so deeply entranced by Matilda that she would find herself randomly slipping into Matilda's life.
Reading that was fascinating, and it's a very heavy, but very good book. Stephen King does torture well. My favourite example would be in Gerald's Game (although I do like IT more, if only because it's full of insanity...), of the mental anguish she goes through. Other writers that do this well (listing books):
Sidney Sheldon-Tell Me Your Dreams is my prime example, but they're all good.
Lord Of The Rings-Tolkien-you can't tell me Frodo doesn't suffer torture of a sort.
Garth Nix-Lirael has lived through mental torture of a sort-although not directly implemented-until the book starts.
There are others, but my brain is too busy thinking up new ideas to think of them at the moment, and those are my favourite, shining examples from my shelves. For movies, see:
Tim Burton-Sweeney Todd, Edward Scissorhands.
M. Night Shymalan-Sixth Sense, The Village, all about psychological, and The Happening-which I saw and loved, in theater-is again, psychological.
Star Wars-Hi Han Solo, how was the carbonite?
Batman Begins-Scarecrow. Come on.
These are examples of great writing as well as wonderful torture, most of it psychological, and good to study. My own books are planned to include many scenes of death and other trauma, to either force the characters irrevocably insane, or very difficult to fix insane.
Do you like torture? If so, what do you find most effective?
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Comment by katyzzz
Photography Tips
Health Focus
Poetry Lighthouse
MS Paint Art
Perhaps it is cathartic for some.
~
Comment by Dianna G
I Wish This Was 42
Fictional Worlds
For me it's like therapy O.O
I get to take out all my anger and agression WITHOUT going to jail! Amazing.
~Dianna